Having worked in the recording industry (my original career track was becoming a recording engineer) I feel little pity for them in these days of free Napster-music. They’ve held on to old, star- and marketing-driven business models too long, mostly out of stupidity and greed. Even now, they just want control and not to actually adapt to changing times.
I’d love to hear one record exec say, “We’ve got to throw out our oxygen-sucking marketing and A&R departments and use the Internet to give people the music they want at a reasonable price that makes us a reasonable profit.”
Too bad emusic.com isn’t more popular. I love getting this They Might Be Giants album for $.99 a song or $8.99 for almost an hour of music. I bet the artists make a higher profit in the end too.